Lush Christmas Haul | Beauty

I've had the past week off and should feel all refreshed and chilled out, but no, Mrs. Perfectionist over here obviously can't sit down until all the work is done. Essays, presentations, studying for exams - throw it at me. Also, hosting parties and going out to meet people? Sure. And all the cleaning up afterwards? Whatever.

Keeping up an academic career as well as a social life is impossible and if you manage to do it, please let me in on your secrets.

So, stressed out student I was, I decided to take yesterday off and treat myself to a day downtown with my Mom and how could I not drop into Lush while I was there?

I have to admit that when I saw all the products from their Christmas range, I might've been a little overwhelmed. All of them were so cute, and all the products smelt divine (I felt slightly high after leaving the store, not gonna lie) so picking out which of them I wanted to take home with me turned out to be quite the challenge.

So, how about we have a look at the ones that made the cut?

Candy Mountain (Bubble Bar) 4,95€

I've been dying to get this all year! 'Candy Mountain' is my all-time favorite Christmas product out of all the ones Lush offers and I've been purchasing it for years, so obviously I had to get this. I think I smiled like an idiot while smelling this. Yes, I'm a nutter.

This has an insanely sweet smell of vanilla which I believe is either exactly the same scent as the 'Snow Fairy' shower gel or at least a fairly similar one - so if you love that one, you'll be guaranted to fall in love with this product as well! The scent also sticks with you after you get out of the bath for a couple of hours, so this could be perfect for a bath before a Christmas party.

And, on top of all that goodness, it is also a bubble bar, which means that I'll get at least two, if not three uses out of this so it's definitely worth every cent. I shall get more of these.

Father Christmas (Bath Bomb) 5,95€

I'm no stranger to this product either as I first picked it up shortly before last year's Christmas and absolutely loved it, so I was also looking to stock up on more of these this year.
It's also a really suprising bath bomb because it looks quite rosey on the outside, but once you plop it into the bath it'll turn the water a vibrant shade of green! On top of that, with this in the bath my skin always ends up feeling insanely soft afterwards, so that's another plus.

This actually has a really similar smell to Candy Mountain, only that it's not as strong - so if you don't like sicklish-sweet scents, you might want to look into this one rather than my beloved bubble bar.

Peeping Santa (Bubble Bar) 5,50€

How cute is this little guy? I could simply not leave him at the store, he was too adorable.

The 'Peeping Santa' bubble bar is a new product that Lush brought out this year and due to it's scent it was definitely the most appealing new product to me! It smells of strawberries, one of my favorite scents, and has some bergamot and geranium oil thrown in there, so it's not your typical sweet Christmas scent, but rather fruity and fresh!

I'm really looking forward to get a few baths out of this one and watch my water turn red and full of bubbles! Oh so festive.

Butter Bear (Bath Bomb) 2,95€

Much like with the 'Peeping Santa', the cutesy factor was strong with this one.

I don't expect this to have a massive effect once it's thrown into the bath, but it's described to make it feel creamy, and it also smells of cocoa, so it'll definitely have a 'feel-good' effect on me.

Also, it has a pretty low price for a Lush product, so there's another reason to totally go out and pick this dude up.

What's your favorite product from Lush's Christmas range?

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Battling Breakouts With Lush | Beauty

Having oily/combination skin, something that I have to put up with a lot is sudden breakouts.

Now, I have tried and tested a whole bunch of different products to help improve my skin - different kinds of cleansers, toners and serums. But the one thing I keep coming back to are face masks - I'll always pop them in my basket when I'm shopping downtown.

Something else that I simply can't resist is having a look around Lush whenever I pass the store - there's just something about all those scents and pretty colors that always lures me in there.

But even though I keep paying visits to Lush, I have never gone further than buying their bath bombs - shocking, I know, but I was never really brave enough to try out one of their skincare products as I'm really, really fussy with what I use on my face due to my past experiences.

But the last time I was in there, it was different - I was going through a phase of extremely oily skin and bad breakouts, and to say it plainly, I was insanely desperate, so I had a look at all the face masks Lush has to offer and decided that their "Cupcake" mask had to come home with me.

What I love about Lush is that I can trust their ingredients to be natural, so I know that I'm not going to put anything toxic on my face.

Ingredients in this face mask include rhassoul mud, which helps with cleansing and softening your skin, linseed infusion, which acts protective and nourishing as well as cocoa powder, fair trade vanilla absolute and fresh mint, which give off the most amazing scent.

The "Cupcake" mask promises to draw out all the dirt and impurities and give you a deep cleanse, while the fresh mint is supposed to stimulate and tone your skin whilst cocoa powder and linseed soften and moisturise it.

I could already see all of those effects after my second use.

As this is a fresh face mask and you're supposed to keep it in your fridge, this feels insanely cooling and fresh on your skin when you first apply it.

What I also like about this is that while it's on your face for the recommended 5-10 miutes, it smells of fresh ingredients, especially of cocoa powder and mint - because in my opinion, there is nothing worse than a face mask that smells like chemicals.

After I rinse this of with warm water after the recommended amount of time, the majoirity of my blackheads are gone and I feel like my skin can actually breathe again.

Even though this mask is supposed to keep your oily skin at bay, it still moisturises it so it doesn't feel all dry and tense, but very soft instead.

The day after I use this, my spots are a lot less red and visible, some smaller ones even seem to dissapear completely over night.

Overall, I would highly recommend this face mask to everyone who is struggling with oily skin or with bad breakouts.

As it retails at 10,45€, it's rather pricy compared to your average drugstore mask, but the effects of this are a thousand times more visible and you also get a lot more uses out of this than you would of a one use face mask as it's a 45ml pot.

What is your favorite Lush product?

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